2024-25 HoriZone Roundtable #HLMBB preseason poll

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Change was the theme of the offseason for the Horizon League, with 12 of its 15 All-League selections and five of its 11 men’s basketball head coaches from 2024 departing. With that said, continuity is the theme of the preseason. Purdue Fort Wayne is the HoriZone Roundtable pick to win the Horizon League this year, returning four of its five starters from last year and two of the league’s three 2024 All-League selections in Rasheed Bello and Jalen Jackson. PFW and the rest of the Top 5 also return their head coaches.

Milwaukee lost All-Everything guard B.J. Freeman, but did return several key pieces that had the Panthers competing to the final minutes against NCAA Tournament Cinderella in the Horizon League Championship game while adding several key transfers to earn the second spot in our poll.

Northern Kentucky loses legend Marques Warrick, but brings back 2023 All-League pick Sam Vinson along with 2024 Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year Trey Robinson, which was more than enough to convince our voters the Norse will stay competitive on the defensive side of the ball. Oakland is also projected to remain competitive despite a complete overhaul of the roster that got it within a shot of the Sweet Sixteen.

Defense and faith that Daniyal Robinson will put up a competitive team have Cleveland State projected for fifth place. The Vikings narrowly beat out Wright State and Youngstown State, who have both regularly finished higher than our sixth place projection in recent years but are going through the uncertainty of new head coaches.

Questions about Green Bay’s coaching, Robert Morris’ ability to put up a team that can compete in the league, IU-Indianapolis’ lineup almost entirely made of Division II transfers, and Detroit Mercy’s talent level compared to a team that won just 1 game lead to those four being at the bottom of our projections for this season.

PlaceTeam
1.Purdue Fort Wayne
2.Milwaukee
3.Northern Kentucky
4.Oakland
5.Cleveland State
6(tie).Wright State
6(tie).Youngstown State
8.Green Bay
9.Robert Morris
10.IU-Indianapolis
11.Detroit Mercy

The HoriZone Roundtable preseason pick to come out on top of Horizon League men’s basketball this year is Purdue Fort Wayne, in large part due to everything the Mastodons bring back from a team that was one brutal two-week stretch away from being a contender last season. Rasheed Bello, Jalen Jackson, Quinton Morton-Robertson, and Eric Mulder were all full-time starters a season ago for the CIT runner-up PFW. While the Mastodons need to figure out what to do with the final starting spot, that’s a significant head start over most of the school’s Horizon League opponents.

The combination of a quality group of returning players and one of the more heralded collections of newcomers in the Horizon League result in Milwaukee being projected for a second place finish in the league this season. Returnees like Erik Pratt and Kentrell Pullian combined with newcomers like AJ McKee and Themus Fulks should give Milwaukee one of the top backcourts in the league, while post players Faizon Fields and Darius Duffy provide all-around quality for Milwaukee up front. Milwaukee should have a much more well-rounded attack than it did during BJ Freeman’s time in town, and voters are optimistic about the prospects.

Northern Kentucky enters the first year after Marques Warrick with plenty of reasons for optimism. Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year Trey Robinson returns for another year after finding his offense in 2024. His biggest competition to repeat for the award might just be teammate Sam Vinson, returning after a torn ACL cut his 2024 season short after just 13 games. The duo should cause headaches on both sides of the ball this year, making the loss of a program legend like Warrick easier to swallow.

After 2024 Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year Jack Gohlke became a March Madness legend and helped Oakland get within a shot of a Sweet Sixteen appearance, the Golden Grizzlies will have a very different look this year. Still, our voters project that OU will be in the mix near the top of the conference in 2025. Expect returning starter DQ Cole to see his role increase significantly this year for an Oakland team whose rotation will likely feature just three players who saw the court in last year’s NCAA Tournament appearance.

In year three of the Daniyal Robinson era, Cleveland State will need to find its new offensive identity without Tristan Enaruna. It’s not likely to be a feat accomplished by one player, but transfers like Tahj Staveskie and Ebrima Dibba should help the Vikings stay in a competitive place in the Horizon League. Also helping Cleveland State remain competitive will be the defensive intensity that predates Robinson’s time in Cleveland and was a staple under Dennis Gates as well.

Brandon Noel is the league’s lone returnee who made one of the top two All-Horizon League teams, and a big part of the reason that our staff believes Wright State will post a competitive sixth place finish in Clint Sargent’s first year at the helm despite so much departing firepower. Noel averaged 14.5 points per game with high-level scorers Trey Calvin and Tanner Holden in the lineup, and could be poised for a big bump in scoring after the duo’s graduations. Alex Huibregtse averaged 12.3 points per game for WSU last year, and could also be in a position to be a bigger scoring threat this season. The questions that keep first-year Head Coach Clint Sargent’s Raiders from being higher in the rankings revolve around the other side of the ball. WSU struggled defensively, and most of this team’s core was around last year. Without Calvin and Holden, a better finish will likely depend on drastic improvements defensively.

Like the Raiders, we project Youngstown State to wind up in the middle of the pack after going through a coaching change and choosing to elevate a first year head coach to lead the team through a roster overhaul. Like his predecessor, Ethan Faulkner relied heavily on the transfer portal when assembling YSU’s roster. Incoming players like Nico Galette, Siem Uijtendaal and Jason Nelson fit the profile of previous YSU stars that have had the team near the top of the Horizon League in recent years.

The roller coaster that has been Green Bay basketball continued this offseason when the Phoenix opted to hire Fox Sports analyst Doug Gottlieb to replace departing head coach Sunny Wicks, and our staff needs more information on what could turn out to be the Horizon League’s biggest wildcard. Solid performers like Preston Ruedinger and Foster Wonders who contributed to Green Bay’s third place Horizon League finish are joined by high upside newcomers like Jeremiah Johnson and Isaiah Miranda to create a roster that could look like a contender if it all pans out or a like the Noah Reynolds-less Green Bay team we saw struggle at the end of last season if it doesn’t.

With a new look assistant coaching staff to go along with its new look roster, Robert Morris has too many questions left to be answered for our staff to have confidence in the Colonials. Justice Williams, Kam Woods and Josh Omojafo should provide scoring for RMU but there are still questions to be answered defensively. Unfortunately, our staff doesn’t see those questions being answered in a way that’s likely to lead to a longer leash for Colonials coach Andy Toole.

Unlike the three schools above IU-Indianapolis in our rankings who changed coaches, the Jaguars opted to hire a new head coach with previous coaching experience and tabbed Paul Corsaro from the nationally ranked Division II program across town at the University of Indianapolis. Corsaro brought a slew of UIndy players led by Paul Zilinskas and Jarvis Walker (formerly of Purdue Fort Wayne) as well as other highly productive Division II players like Timaris Brown, Alec Millender and Nathan Dudukovich to put together the bulk of the Jaguars’ new roster. On paper, the team should be much better than what IU-Indianapolis has trotted out recently, so the fact that the team’s still picked for tenth could be a good sign that the bottom of the league will be a little better this year.

After going 1-31 under sixth year head coach Mike Davis, Detroit Mercy opted to make a coaching change of its own, and like IU-Indianapolis the Titans opted to go with an experienced coach and hired former Northern Illinois Head Coach Mark Montgomery to lead the program. Montgomery got right to work bringing a local flair to the Titans, adding Eastern Michigan transfers Legend Geeter and Orlando Lovejoy. Montgomery got NIU to the point where it was generally winning 15 to 18 games a year, but it did take a pair of 5-win seasons to get to that point. We may be looking at a similar first season for Montgomery at Detroit Mercy.

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